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Mattiacci a mystery for now

Pundits scrambled to scrape the barrel for any bit of information when Ferrari announced five days ago that Marco Mattiacci had replaced Stefano Domenicali as team principal of their F1 team.

New Ferrari team boss Marco Mattiacci must get the Italian team to build championship-winning cars again. Photo: Getty Images

New Ferrari team boss Marco Mattiacci must get the Italian team to build championship-winning cars again. Photo: Getty Images

Pundits scrambled to scrape the barrel for any bit of information when Ferrari announced five days ago that Marco Mattiacci had replaced Stefano Domenicali as team principal of their F1 team.

After six straight seasons of disappointment and near misses, it was never a question if Domenicali would be sacked, but when.

The last straw came two weeks ago in Bahrain when the Prancing Horse’s Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen could only finish ninth and 10th respectively.

The cut was deep because as builders of some of the fastest sports cars in the market, they were reduced to spectators by the likes of Force India, which neither produce such speedsters nor high technology.

So when Mercedes led a 1-2 finish and Force India took third and fourth, with defending champions Red Bull and Williams filling the spots in between, the brakes were pulled on Domenicali.

But for a storied team like Ferrari, the big choice should have been the likes of Ross Brawn to take over the Scuderia. He could have been persuaded.

Instead, company chairman Luca di Montezemolo picked “young manager” Mattiacci, who at 42 is only six years Domenicali’s junior.

A brave choice as the closest connection the new man has to motorsport is to supply cars to the North American Le Mans series.

But Mattiacci was immensely successful as Ferrari’s sales chief for their sports cars in Asia, and then in the Americas, and this seems enough for Montezemolo.

For sure, success is what their F1 team direly lacks now and the chairman must be hoping that his handpicked candidate has plenty in excess to rub off.

Can it work?

At yesterday’s Chinese Grand Prix practice, Fernando Alonso put his scarlet car on top of the time sheets in the first session and narrowly missed outpacing Mercedes Lewis Hamilton in the next one.

The arrival of Mattiacci at trackside may have inspired the team, but it is too much to expect he will work a miracle overnight.

This year’s Ferraris flatter at the turns on slower tracks like Shanghai, but mask their real shortcomings in pace. So, problems are still inherent.

But as a successful businessman, what Mattiacci brings to the table is an instinct to be on top of the game and in F1 this means beating the best.

To get them back to winning mode, he does not need to match the talent of some of the best technology brains assembled in his garage. What he needs to do is to play field marshal, and after a poor start to the season, the first order of business is to raise sagging spirits.

After underperforming for six seasons, he must get them rebuilding championship-worthy cars again and that may mean taking a closer look at the talents on their payroll.

Whether he brings new technical expertise on board, Ferrari cannot afford to struggle to take podium, let alone find victory, for a prolonged period.

With Lamborghini pushing aggressively and McLaren upping production, they are facing stiffer competition for high-performance sports cars and need to keep confidence in their marque with a championship strut on track.

The Italian team need strong leadership, one who wouldn’t blink when making tough decisions, and they are betting on Mattiacci as their man.

But not much is known what Ferrari’s newly minted team principal is capable of and the time to measure him is mid-season.

Montezemolo can at least be credited in moving quickly to stop the rot at Maranello. A successful industrialist in his own right, the 66-year-old mastered the art of winning at the feet of the team’s founder, Enzo Ferrari.

He then guided them to eight drivers’ and 11 constructors’ titles and maybe under his tutelage, Mattiacci will bring the good times back to the team and their legions of fans worldwide.

Ian De Cotta is F1 Correspondent at TODAY

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